Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 1536

Chapter 1536: Chapter 1536

Their connection ignited - deeper than flesh, older than memory. Her hips moved in harmony with the waves below, and the air around them shimmered faintly gold. The island felt it. Welcomed it. Grass curled lovingly around their limbs, and the sun pressed harder through the clouds, bathing them in heat.

She gasped softly when he entered her, her body arching, back taut as a bowstring. Jude’s hands slid up her ribs, his thumbs brushing the underswell of her breasts, the rhythm of their bodies finding a perfect, aching tempo. She rode him with purpose, not wild but reverent, her breath catching each time he thrust upward into her.

They locked eyes - her golden gaze burning, open, inviting.

"You’re still mine," she whispered.

"I always was," he answered.

She leaned forward, her breasts pressed to his chest, her lips at his throat. Their bodies moved faster now, the tension building, the wave rising.

"Say it," she breathed.

"I love you," he groaned.

She cried out as she came, trembling against him, her nails digging into his shoulders. Jude followed moments later, his whole body tensing, releasing, unraveling into her. The golden light around them pulsed once - twice - and then gently faded.

For a long moment, they simply lay there, tangled in one another, the sea sighing below, the wind threading through the grass.

Rose kissed his shoulder. "They’ll be waking soon."

He nodded, fingers trailing through her hair.

She rose first, wrapping the fronds around her waist again with lazy grace. Jude followed, and together they walked back toward the camp.

By the time they arrived, the others were already stirring. Lucy sat on the steps, sleepy-eyed and radiant. Zoey stretched out like a cat, her hair tangled, a crooked grin on her face. Grace and Stella were already preparing fruit and tea, humming under their breath.

Sophie stood with Emma near the fire, both of them watching Jude and Rose approach with unreadable expressions.

Jude hesitated. Rose paused beside him.

Lucy tilted her head, studying his face, then smiled. "You saw something."

He nodded.

Emma’s gaze sharpened. "More visions?"

"No," he said. "Rose."

Sophie crossed her arms. "You’re glowing."

He looked down. His skin still shimmered faintly.

"We’re all glowing now," Zoey said with a yawn. "It’s like sweat and stardust."

Grace giggled.

Emma didn’t.

"Something’s happening," she said. "Something bigger than just sex and dreams."

"It’s always been bigger," Rose said, brushing past them all to sit beside the fire. "You just weren’t listening."

Emma stepped closer to Jude. "You still feel like yourself?"

"Yes," he said honestly. "But more."

Lucy took his hand and laced their fingers together. "Then maybe we can be more too."

Sophie’s eyes narrowed. "And what if we don’t want to be?"

Jude stepped toward her, cupped her cheek. "Then you don’t have to be. You’re free, Sophie. You always have been."

Her jaw tightened - but she didn’t pull away.

"Something’s changing," Zoey said, standing now. "I can feel it. It’s not just inside us anymore."

"It’s waking up," Stella said softly. "The island. It’s waking fully."

A sound echoed through the trees - a low, rolling tone like a giant stone wheel turning.

Everyone froze.

Then a beam of light shot up from the heartstone’s location in the woods - straight into the sky.

Jude turned slowly. "It’s calling."

Rose stood beside him again. "Then let’s answer."

This time, they all followed.

The ground shifted beneath their feet as they entered the forest, not violently, but in a way that suggested movement far below. Something ancient stirred, and it responded to every step they took. Moss glowed faintly beneath their soles, and even the trees seemed to bend slightly toward them, as if to listen. Jude led the way, Lucy’s hand still clutched in his, the others moving silently behind, each one drawn by the pillar of light that now pulsed like a heartbeat in the sky above the heartstone’s resting place.

No one spoke. There was no need. Words had become too small for what they were becoming.

The forest was alive with warmth and color, flowers blooming in impossible hues along the path, petals brushing against bare skin like gentle fingers. The air was thick with scent - orchid and musk, salt and honey - and it made their breath come a little faster, their senses a little sharper. The island wasn’t just welcoming them now. It was guiding them, whispering in pulses and tremors and rising heat.

When they arrived at the hill, the pedestal glowed like a star, the crystal heartstone pulsing in tune with their footsteps. Around it, the runes on the stone platform had changed again. New lines etched themselves in real time, curling and spreading like veins of gold across the ancient rock. Sophie stepped ahead of the others, eyes narrowed as she watched the magic unfold.

"It’s reacting to us," she said quietly.

"No," Rose murmured. "It’s preparing us."

Jude stepped forward and placed his hand on the heartstone again. The moment his skin met the crystal, the light surged outward, a wave of golden energy that passed through every body in the clearing. They gasped in unison, a shared inhale of heat and desire, of something more primal than understanding.

And then the ground cracked.

A perfect circle opened at the base of the pedestal, the stones sliding aside without sound, revealing a spiral staircase carved into the earth and lit with a glow that came from no source they could see. Jude looked back at the others.

Sophie crossed her arms. "Of course there’s a hidden staircase. Why wouldn’t there be?"

Grace grinned, stepping past her. "We’re already glowing and dreaming through each other’s skin. This is nothing."

One by one, they descended, the stairs cool beneath their feet, the air growing denser and sweeter with each step. It smelled of memory. Of first breath and last moan. Of promises made in the dark and kept in the light. The staircase twisted downward for what felt like forever, until finally, the space opened into a vast chamber unlike anything they had seen.